


Beautiful and Strong

by hotcocoa



Series: BokuAka Week 2016 [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Age Changes, BokuAka Week, Gen, they are smol children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-06
Updated: 2016-04-06
Packaged: 2018-05-31 16:24:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6477451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hotcocoa/pseuds/hotcocoa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Day 2: Pets</p><p>Akaashi really likes owls and Bokuto really likes Akaashi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beautiful and Strong

It happened one day when they were walking through the park.

“Whoa…”

Bokuto turned to see what Akaashi was looking at. A few meters away, there was a woman holding a large and majestic bird on her arm. Akaashi was staring at it in wonder. “What do you think it is?” he asked softly.

“An owl, maybe?” Bokuto replied. “It’s cool though! Let’s go look, Akaashi-kun!”

When they approached the woman, Bokuto tugged on her pants. “Excuse me, miss?” She looked down at him in surprise. “What kind of bird is that?”

She smiled. “It’s a great horned owl,” she said, lowering her arm so that they could see it better. “Do you know anything about owls?”

“They don’t sleep at night!” Bokuto announced proudly.

“They’re really pretty,” Akaashi whispered.

The owl handler started telling them about great horned owls, but Bokuto was only half-listening as he was busy staring at Akaashi, who was in turn staring at the owl. He seemed absolutely fascinated.

After a while, other people had started to come over and it made it harder to see the owl so they went back to walking home. “Man, that was so cool, huh, Akaashi-kun?” Bokuto said, stretching his arms. “Owls are awesome!”

“Yeah,” Akaashi replied. “It looked really strong and beautiful. I wish I could have an owl.”

Bokuto cocked his head. Akaashi still looked awe-struck. _He really liked that owl, huh?_ Bokuto had an idea. He grinned. “Race you home!” he yelled, breaking out into a run.

“Bokuto-kun, no fair!” Akaashi complained from behind him. By the time they got to Akaashi’s house, they were both out of breath, and Bokuto had a couple of scrapes on his knee. That didn’t stop him from smiling brightly as he waved goodbye.

“Bye, Akaashi-kun! See you tomorrow!”

He ran the rest of the way home, and after being scolded by his mother for scraping his knees, Bokuto asked her if he could do extra chores for some money.

His mother looked surprised. “Well, if you want to do more chores, that’s great!” she said. “And I don’t see why you shouldn’t be rewarded for that.” She smiled at him. “Tell you what, if you do at least two chores every day this week, I’ll give you 600 yen.”

Bokuto cheered. “Thank you!”

Bokuto spent the next week working hard. It meant less time playing with his friends, but it would be worth it. When the end of the week finally came, Bokuto approached his mother eagerly.

“You’ve been so helpful this week, Koutarou!” she complimented him. She handed him 900 yen with a smile. “For all of your hard work.”

Bokuto hugged her in delight. “Thanks, Mom!”

“Have fun!” she yelled as he ran out of the house, making a beeline for the place he’d been waiting to go all week.

Bokuto clutched his money to his chest as he walked into the pet shop. He walked up to the counter and stood on his tiptoes so he could see over the edge. “Hello,” he said. “I would like to purchase an owl, please.”

The clerk smiled and looked down at him apologetically. “I’m sorry, but we don’t sell owls here,” she said.

“Oh.” Bokuto’s face fell. “Do you know where I could get one?”

“I don’t think anyone sells owls,” she replied gently. “They don’t make very good pets—they’re big and need lots of freedom so living in a house isn’t very good for them.”

Bokuto’s eyes started to shine and his lower lip wavered. “B-but,” he said, “I worked so hard for this money, and…my friend…he really wants an owl…”

The clerks exchanged a glance. “M-maybe you can get your friend another kind of bird?” the clerk at the other register suggested.

“No!” Bokuto started crying. “Akaashi loves owls. He thinks they’re beautiful and he really wants one.”

“Okay, okay, hey,” said the first clerk, coming around to front of the counter and kneeling down to wipe the tears off of Bokuto’s face. She looked back up at the other clerk again. “Why don’t you let Kita-san show you the other animals in the store while I go see what I can do about finding you an owl, okay?”

Bokuto sniffled and looked up at her. “Really? You’ll get him an owl?” he asked.

“I’ll do my best,” she promised. “What’s your name?”

“B-Bokuto Koutarou,” he replied, bowing slightly.

“Okay, Bokuto-kun, I’ll be right back,” she said, standing up. When she went back behind the counter, she whispered something to her coworker, who nodded and came back around to take her place in front of Bokuto.

“Do you want me to show you the animals we have here while Hiraki-san goes to get you an owl?” he asked. Bokuto nodded. Kita took his hand and led him around the store, showing him small fluffy rodents and scaly reptiles that felt rough to the touch and birds that were much smaller than the great horned owl but much more colorful.

They were interrupted by the jingling of the bell as Hiraki came back into the shop, holding one hand behind her back and smiling cheerfully. “Bokuto-kun!” she called, and Bokuto came running up to her.

“Did you find an owl?” he asked excitedly.

Hiraki knelt down in front of him and pulled her arm out from behind her back. “This was the best I could do,” she said apologetically, handing Bokuto a plush horned owl about the size of his torso.

Bokuto stared at it in awe and took it gingerly in his hands. It looked just like the owl they had seen in the park. “It’s perfect,” he whispered. He looked back up at Hiraki. “Thank you, Hiraki-san!” he cried, throwing his arms around her waist.

Hiraki smiled and ruffled his hair as she extracted herself from Bokuto’s embrace and stood up. “Go on, you should go and give that to your friend,” she told him.

Bokuto nodded vigorously. He started towards the door, but quickly turned around and held out the money towards her. “Thank you so much, Hiraki-san! Kita-san!” he said, bowing.

“Oh, Bokuto-kun, that’s okay, you don’t have to—” Hiraki started, but Kita nudged her and she conceded, taking the money from Bokuto’s hand. “Thank you, Bokuto-kun—I hope your friend loves the owl!”

“Me too!” Bokuto yelled as he ran out the shop and around the corner.

He ran all the way to Akaashi’s house, holding the owl under his arm. When he arrived at the front door, he knocked and hid the owl as best he could behind his back.

Akaashi answered the door. “Hi, Akaashi-chan!” Bokuto said excitedly. “Guess what!”

“What?” Akaashi replied, trying to look behind Bokuto’s back. Bokuto didn’t make him wait very long, whipping out the owl from behind his back and presenting it proudly. Akaashi’s eyes widened bigger than Bokuto had ever seen them. “An owl…” he said.

“Yep, it’s for you!” Bokuto said happily, handing it over to Akaashi. “You said you wanted one, so I—”

“Thank you, Bokuto-kun.” Akaashi tucked the owl under one arm and stepped forward to hug Bokuto tightly. After a moment of surprise, Bokuto hugged him back.

“I love you, Akaashi!”

“I love you too, Bokuto.”

**Author's Note:**

> Obviously, Akaashi’s love for owls has absolutely NOTHING to do with how Bokuto decided to style his hair later on.


End file.
